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My hard drive started failing on 4/27 and was replaced... the system image and all personal files were restored from a recent back up. The system began acting strange before the crash but when I got it back, the following happened:

For 30 minutes or so after booting, the focus of whatever window I'm in goes in and out... so if I start typing, letters are skpped as that window loses focus... I think I narrowed that phenomenon down to wermgr process cycling. I tried to shut down the wermgr service, but something else keeps spawnning it... no doubt the actual errors that are occurring... I don't know how to get rid of it entirely, nor if I should although I have serious doubts that Microsoft really cares what is happening to my computer.

The HP printer's "Solution Center" had disappeared (which I need to scan)

My ScanSnap was no longer operational and the computer fails to complete the driver install

Windows update hangs up

I can't back up files with the native Windows backup app... it goes so far and then hangs (with no error message)... left it on overnight and was at same percentage 8 hours later.

I tried going back to an earlier restore point, but the one I needed had already been erased and I couldn't get back far enough.

Windows fails at diagnosing or correcting any errors.

I'm about to reinstall Windows 7 and SP1, but would prefer not to if possible as I would have to reinstall many applications to get up and running again. Although there is clearly a lot of unneeded installs on the drive some of which launch services although I've tried to shut as many as I can down.

I have all files backed up on an external drive... the backup I made before getting the harddrive replaced and manually copied over all files created since. My internal drive is partitioned into C: which holds the system files and E: which has My Documents and some other personal files. Microsoft tech site says that all partitions could get destroyed by reinstalling Windows... I don't know how that is possible... are they that sloppy that they don't respect partition boundaries?

Thanks for your time and getting back quickly...
I ran Malwarebytes Anti-malware; it didn't ask me to update... It does say my trial will expire in 9 hours and asks me to "Buy Premium".
I quarantined the one item it flagged
I opened the log, but there is no "Quarantined items" mentioned... the log is included at bottom of this post.
I rebooted; wermgr finally didn't start (even though I tried to shut down the service multiple times yesterday);
I ran malwarebytes anti malware again and checked for updates (there are none).
I scanned again (No malicious items were detected!).
I then did started ESET online scan after disabling Norton 360.
ESET online scanner hung up at 92% 4 hours into the process; it scanned 590487 files found 216 infected files. stopped at adxregistrator.log in E:\Documents\zAdd-in
Malawarebytes is running in the background and sucking up resources
I guess I'll can it... it hasn't moved for 30 minutes... so far, here is my list of problems:
- Windows hangs up trying to install its own updates
- Cryptographic Service won't start
- Windows won't install drivers
- Certain processes report that computer is not connected to the internet even though it is (I can browse and get email traffic)
- bleeping computer .com reports that Javasript is disabled although nothing has been done to stop it.
Any ideas?

I stopped ESET and saved the "List of found threats" and looked through the list displayed when I clicked on "Manage quarantine"... I haven't gone through the "List of found threats" and highlighted those shown in the "Manage quarantine"; most were legitimate programs; some I don't recognize.

Please note that dc3 was "helping" me... I spent hours getting together the items he requested. Then nothing... I saw that he was online and pm'd him yesterday to see if he could have a look. He responded that I must respond in the forum itself and NOT pm him. He said he would have a look... he still has not got back to me. So yesterday I concluded that I can't wait any longer to get my OS back running correctly as I can no longer do any scanning nor install MS updates. All the RESTORE points have the bad reg settings or corrupted OS files in them as MS has rolled over the good restore points from before the problems occurred. Neither will the Repair disk work. Neither will the reg files previously saved work... I've tried a few and they all fail due to an error.

So I decided to go ahead and reinstall the OS which is a different request... My original request was to fix it and appears to me to be null and void due to lack of interest. No one other than dc3 has offered to help on the original request. Since dc3 has helped others in the meantime, I can only conclude that he no longer wants to help me.

Also note that my original request now shows 0 replies... this changed after it said 3 or 4 a few days ago... and even though it now says 0, I have not heard back from anyone else. What do you consider to be a reasonable time to wait? It is disappointing to have gone to a lot of work creating reports to no avail.

I realize that this is a volunteer effort, but it seems to me that if one of you decides to help, you should either follow through or say, sorry I can no longer help, and let me know so I can go elsewhere.

You have two topics open regarding this issue. The one here and another in the Am I Infected forum.

I PMed a moderator to see if I could have this one close so that the one in the Am I Infected forum could be pursued without potentially creating confusion. This was yesterday afternoon, the PM has been read and I'm still waiting for a response. I'm not ignoring your topic, and I have not quit trying to help you.

You are correct, we all volunteer our time here. There are times when my outside life takes a precedence, like taking my wife out for a early dinner and a movie on her birthday yesterday.

If you would still like for me to try to help you let me know.

Family and loved ones will always be a priority in my daily life. You never know when one will leave you.

I have no idea how my topic got into the "Am I infected forum"... I opened it in BleepingComputer.com -> Operating Systems -> Windows 7; if I were allowed to attach a file or include an image, I could prove it to you. I have no idea how it got moved there, but I had nothing to do with it... I didn't move it there, nor did I open a different one there; I don't think my computer is infected. Prove me wrong, but at this point I think it is very unlikely... Why would someone move my post without discussing it with me assuming a problem that hadn't been identified yet? Call me crazy, bu It seems to make sense to diagnose the problem before assuming it is this or that and acting on that assumption.

I just need to have a good operating system that is doing what it is supposed to and correctly which is why I posted in .BleepingComputer.com -> Operating Systems -> Windows 7.

The hard drive failed and was replaced at no charge by the computer firm who built this computer. Most likely, In the process of failing it messed up some of the OS files... The cryptographic service is no longer running, nor will it start.. it appears to be trashed and in spite of considerable research, I can only find advisories for XP.

To compound things as I tried to update and install missing drivers new restore points were automatically created and the older good ones were written over by the OS so that I no longer have a good one thus I lost the opportunity to go back to a previous "good" state... moreover the fault with the OS is preventing me from performing various fixes... at least all I've tried so far. In the process of moving I have lost my "clean/when new" Repair/restore DVD. I have the OS and drivers.

All I want to do now is reinstall my operating system which is why I asked in a new post, now locked by HamLuis. It is actually a different topic, but apparently he doesn't think so... I have no way to close a topic or mark it no longer relevant. If I did, I would have to avoid all this mishigas and wasted time. I pm'd dc3 because I didn't want to embarrass him by posting publicly. Well that wasn't the right thing to do either... jeesh.

If you know of a checklist, please let me know where it is. Even if I take the computer back to the store for a reinstall, if I haven't saved, printed, recorded, backed up everything I need to, I'm in trouble... They don't know my apps, my s/w, my settings etc. to know how to protect me so that I can get the 100+ currently installed applications back up and running.

If you look at the bottom of your first post in the Am I Infected forum you will see where hamluis moved it there. You posted a log which they deemed to mean that you thought you were infected.

If the hdd had failed, this would mean that the recovery partition on the hdd was lost as well. This would also include any data that was not previously backed up on a form of removable media, like another hdd, flash drive, CDs, DVDs.

If you need a installation disc you can download a ISO image which can be burned to a DVD and create an installation disc. If you wish to do so, you can download it at the Windows 7 Forums.

Edited by dc3, 14 May 2014 - 04:41 PM.

Family and loved ones will always be a priority in my daily life. You never know when one will leave you.

ok... I see that now... I honestly didn't bother to read a post I made days ago. I don't know why he moved it there... esp w/o saying anything to me. I posted a few things to start with as a pre-emptive strike based on what I had seen posted in other threads. The other stuff I posted was what I thought you directed me to do.

I backed up everything to an external drive before I took the computer into the shop and created an image too... but I suspect the image was bad by then and I didn't realize it.

I have an installation disk with W7 and SP1 on it and talked to the guys at the shop re: how to do a Repair-Install... I just want to be sure I have everything to hand before I possibly wipe out everything on the C: (OS) drive (in case the Repair Install fails). I also signed up with Carbonite which has copied 98% of my files... As far as I understand there isn't any point in creating an image or backup of the registries at this point since apparently both are damaged. I'll copy it all over to my external drive again right before I attempt the repair.